There was no shortage of violence over the weekend in Charlottesville, Va., from both white supremacist protesters and radical leftist anti-protesters as they used various tactics to incite extreme violence on each other, forcing Virginia into a state of emergency.
The Daily Caller News Foundation was in Charlottesville Saturday covering the protests and saw a horrific display of violence by both sides. The white supremacists, including neo-Nazis, KKK members, and a variety of white nationalist fringe groups, including Vanguard America and The League of the South, clashed with radical leftist groups, like Antifa and the Workers World Party. Both sides used a variety of different methods to inflict violence on each other, leaving several dozen injured and one dead.
TheDCNF witnessed leftist groups mace white supremacists as a way to start infiltrating Emancipation Park, where the rally was held. The radical left also began throwing a variety of items at the white supremacists, such as balloons filled with urine, paint, or pieces of concrete, as well as soda cans filled with concrete, food, and full water bottles. When they were out of items to throw, the radical left would search the streets for anything they could find to throw.
The left also brought out a “battering ram” made out of plywood and reinforced with a metal step ladder. Radical leftist protesters charged the white supremacists with their hand-made weapon. Enforcers managed to stop the device before it reached the actual shield line, but a new group of protesters tried to push the ram further.
President Donald Trump brought up the alt-left’s violence in a press conference Tuesday from Trump Tower in New York City, saying, “What about the alt-left that came charging at, as you say, the alt-right?” Trump asked the group of media. “Do they have any semblance of guilt?”
Trump continued, “What about the fact they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs. Do they have any problem?” he continued. “I think they do.”
White supremacist groups slowly became frustrated by the violence from the radical left and began clashing. TheDCNF witnessed men brutally assaulting a woman, white supremacist using their flags as spears, bashing people with wooden planks, while many of them were armed with their various types of assault rifles and handguns.
Democratic Gov. of Virginia Terry McAuliffe called for a state of emergency after these acts of violence.
After the state of emergency was declared, state police slowly began pushing the white supremacists groups out of the park and directly into the crowd of radical leftist and anti-protesters, causing serious brawls to erupt. (RELATED: An Exclusive Look At How Virginia Police Emptied Emancipation Park)
TheDCNF witnessed a young black man, Deandre Harris, get brutally assaulted by white supremacists in a parking garage, just feet away from the Charlottesville sheriff’s office, while marching away from Emancipation Park. TheDCNF took graphic footage of the assault, where men use different types of clubs, batons, and even large pieces of wood to jump the young man in the garage.
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TheDCNF was one of the first outlets on scene when when a car plowed into a crowd in the early afternoon during clashes between white supremacists, Black Lives Matter, Antifa and other groups, resulting in one death and 19 injuries.
TheDCNF obtained exclusive footage of the horrendous act, which Attorney General Jeff Sessions, called an act of terrorism Sunday:
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Authorities arrested 20-year old James Fields Jr. shortly after the incident, and he is being held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville County Regional Jail.
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